Another moving up thread

[rewt75]

Hey all. I've been playing poker for about a year now. I started at the pokerroom .25/.50c FR tables and worked my way up to the Party .5/1 FR tables within a couple of months and basically played nothing but them for the next 7 months. I am for the most part risk adverse. At the start of 2005, I took about a 17K hand shot at 2/4 full and ran at .78BB/100 and gave up because I was making less than my 4BB/100 at the .5/1 tables. Plus poker was stressing me out due to all the $100 loss sessions I would have.

I started playing SH as soon as the .5/1 6-max tables opened up a couple of months ago. I always wanted to learn SH, but didn't want to do it at the relatively expensive 1/2 6max tables. So I dove right into the .5/1 6-max tables and loved it. I ran at about 5BB/100 over 15K hands and decided to make the permanent move to 1/2 6-max in August and see how things go. As the month is coming to an end, I've got about 24K hands logged at 3.2BB/100.

My shortterm goal is to beat the 3/6 6-max games for at least 1.5BB/100, however I'm not sure if jumping right into this game is the best idea given my risk adversity and concern over triple the swings now. Ideally I would like to move to a 2/4 6-max game, but to my knowledge there is no site that I can play this game with rakeback. I'm beyond overrolled for the 3/6 game so that isn't a big concern for me. My big concern is if I take a shot at 3/6, drop $1K and get frustrated and drop back down 1/2 to make that money back and know that I could've had a much more profitable month sticking to my regular game.

I'm also concerned that I'm too tight. At 1/2 6-max, I'm a 19.94/12.78 guy. That screams TIGHT, although I follow the SH starting hand charts posted on this forum. My att to steal blinds is right at 30%, so I think that is decent. I think I probably don't isolate weak limpers enough and not 3-bet out of the BB from a button steal attempt with any ace. The blinds are generally so loose at 1/2 that isolation attempts fail quite often and get me stuck in tough spots.

Should I spend another month at 1/2 working to get my VPIP and PFR up, or can a 20/13 player do alright at 3/6? Anyone made the jump directly from 1/2SH to 3/6SH?

[Kyle]

My advice take is to say what the hell and take a shot. Give yourself 100BBs and if you lose it so what. Each time i have moved up, whether it was successful or not, has improved my game tremedously. Also dont worry about VPIP i was beating the 5/10 6 max for a good amount with stats like 20/15.

[RolldUp]

3 6 6max is a big jump from the party 1-2 6max game. Its a lot more aggressive, and the average players dont just give away their money. This is why table selection is so much more important when you move up to this level. Usually if you can get a table vpip of about 40 its worth sticking around. With reguards to your vpip and pfr, you can beat this game keeping them as they are, but you might find it a little more profitble if you tried moving them to around 23 16 or so as you begin to feel more comfortable. As for the swings, lets just say they do not make this game extremely appealing to the risk adverse. During my first 2k hands at 3 6, i encountered a 100bb downswing followed by a 150bb upswing, which makes it a tad stressful at times. My advice would be to start getting a decent database going and then give it a 10k hand try or so, and keep reading lots of hush. Its a very different game than 1-2 but that doesnt mean its stillnot extremely profitable.

Good Luck.

[RunDownHouse]

There are plenty of sites that offer 2/4 6max with rakeback, like Absolute. The problem is that game selection sucks, at least on that site. I'd check out UB or Stars. Even though Stars doesn't have RB, the extra income you earn should offset that loss while you're learning and preparing for the 3/6 game.

[sammy_g]

Take a shot at 3/6. The long-term opportunity cost of not playing in bigger games is much greater than any profit you will make playing 1/2 now. Play at small stakes should be about improvment, not about the $$$. You have the roll, and you're beating 1/2 for a good amount. Take a shot at 3/6.

I wouldn't sweat the 20 VPIP thing. You don't have to have 30 VPIP to be a big winner.

Good luck!

[Poldi]

Take a shot!
Last month I took a shot at 3/6 after 12k hands of 1/2. The game is a bit different but its very beatable. After 16k hands at 3/6 I am now doing great at 5/10.
As you are risk-averse, I wouldnt suggest you to do the same but you probably are very ready for the 3/6 game. Bankroll is not a concern so just give it a 100BB shot.

[rewt75]

Thanks for the replies. I'm starting on the 3/6 tables tonight. Down over 40 bets with a won at sd of 37% through 250 hands. I'll give it to about $500 before I give up, but this sucks already.

[Lurker4]

You can get good rakeback deals at Crypto which has 2/4 6m tables, although there aren't always a bunch to choose from. Also, on Crypto, like Absolute, IIRC bonus does not deduct from MGR so it is even more profitable than your regular rakeback deal.